A member of the Single-A Northwest League, the Hops are the relocated Yakima Bears who had been based out of Yakima, Wa. since 1990. Hillsboro will inherit the Bears’ Major League affiliation with the Arizona Diamondbacks.

“We are excited to announce that our team name is the Hillsboro Hops! The name pays homage to Hillsboro’s proud agricultural heritage, recognizes a leading Oregon crop and tips its hat to a popular baseball term.” – Hillsboro Hops Facebook page

According to Wikipedia, a hop is a flower cluster used primarily as flavour agent in the production of that ever-so-popular (and synonymous with baseball) drink known as beer. Oregon is one of the world’s leading producers of hops – coincidentally, so is Yakima, the former home city of the Hops.

A hop

The club says they were aware of Yakima being a hop hub but it did not play a factor in the choosing of their name.

To be fair, it’s a nice hand drawn logo treatment BUT it’s nothing that would remotely be considered “classic”. As a Creative Director with over 20+ years professional experience (mostly working on premium imported beer brands) it’s both refreshing, and yet disturbing, to see the craft beer craze making it’s way into professional sports — albeit an ingredient. Looking forward to the Des Moines Malts and the Bridgeport Barleys.

tyler

The thing that makes this brilliant, though, and not just an arbitrary repurposing of a beer ingredient, is that hop is also a baseball term, while malt and barley are not. Very clever name, great logo, and perfect for the hoppy-beer-crazy Portland metro.

anthony

Using that logic, lets say that Grand Rapids is the Pantyhose capitol of the US. They have a minor league team and because pantyhose are made there, they call their team the Grand Rapids Runs –– because runs are what is scored in baseball and it’s what happens to hosiery when they get nicked –– that THIS would be considered a cool and clever name for baseball team? How about the Key West Outs (gay community), the Mexico City Sacrifices (Aztec sacrifices), the Milwaukee Bunts (the bundt cake was first created there) — you get my drift. Let’s just agree to say while it’s a very timely and clever name for now, in 10 years they’ll be back to being called the Bears.

Harley

Apart from the Key West Outs I love all those names! Brilliant!

reppact

Agreed. This is up there along with the Walla Walla Sweets and the Normal CornBelters baseball clubs.

There is the Wilson (NC) Tobs baseball team that features a tobacco leaf on their caps albeit without the personification. Here is another example of the area being known as the Tobacco Road, but makes a connection to the negative impact of smoking. I like the Hops logo, but perhaps they could introduce an alternative logo with a simple looking hop without a face on it. However, the important impact is that baseball is back in the Portland area and I only wish to see other clubs move into the Rose City area in the future.

ingmar66

Great name, great logo. Hurray for the Hops!

Jaredd Wilson

Shouldn’t they be affiliated with the Brewers? Just saying…I see a marketing opportunity here.

Aaron

Good point! Maybe down the road they’ll affiliate themselves with the Brewers based on that analogy.